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Lehrende: Nadja Schaetz
Veranstaltungsart:
Vertiefungsseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
V-SEM
Semesterwochenstunden:
2
Credits:
6,0
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
10 | 24
Anmeldegruppe: Vertiefungsseminare Spezielle Soziologien
Weitere Informationen:
B.A.-Soziologie Hauptfach: VM - Spezielle Soziologien
B.A.-Soziologie Nebenfach: VM - Spezielle Soziologien
M.A.-Lehramt Sozialwissenschaften: VM - Spezielle Soziologien
Kommentare/ Inhalte:
Datafication has consequences for our right to be informed, our right to privacy and our right to participate in public communication.
Rights that are — at least in theory — enshrined at the global level by UNESCO resolutions (UNESCO 1981: 265).
Nonetheless, scholars across disciplines have expressed growing concerns over the societal implications of datafication and emergent technology, such as artificial intelligence, and warned of the reproduction and reinforcement of social inequalities by data/surveillance capitalism (Couldry & Mejias 2019; Zuboff 2019), or what Noble (2018) has called ‘algorithms of oppression’.
Like scholars, journalists are paying attention to the societal implications of emergent technology and are trying to improve public understanding. At the same time, datafication has also changed the journalistic profession. News professionals have gained access to a wealth of audience data, allowing them to have a better understanding of audiences’ engagement with news, as well as their information wants and needs. Developments that can be thought to give journalists new resources to address information inequalities.
This course examines issues of datafication and information inequalities from two main perspectives: those of news professionals and those of the people formerly known as the audience. We will explore the connections between social inequalities and information inequalities by drawing on a variety of fields: sociology, media and communication studies, journalism studies, critical data studies, and feminist scholarship.
Moreover, this course draws on insights of an ongoing research project examining information inequality in a global perspective (https://justinformation.se). Students will gain access to empirical data from an interview study and in doing so the opportunity to directly learn from the perspectives of news professionals working at global media organisations including the BBC World, the Guardian, DW and Al-Jazeera English.
Lernziel:
Taking journalism as a case study, students will improve their abilities to critically examine the political, cultural and economic implications of datafication and emergent technology. By the end of the course, students should have acquired a deeper understanding of issues of datafication and how this process structures information inequalities on a global level.
Vorgehen:
Weekly, synchronous seminar via zoom
Literatur:
A literature list will be presented at the beginning of the seminar. All literature will be available online.
Zusätzliche Hinweise zu Prüfungen:
To pass the course, you will be expected to come well prepared to class, to participate actively, and to complete assignments.
You will get brief written feedback on each assignment.
Course work:
- Class activities
- Short presentation
- Short reflection papers (as critical responses to readings)
Grades:
- Presentation (25%)
- Course paper (essay) OR research proposal* - 2500 words (75%)
*I encourage students to follow their own research interests and will support students' individual research aims in whatever way they connect with the research foci of this course. Therefore I offer students the opportunity to develop their research ideas and write a research proposal in lieu of a course paper, if they wish to do so.
Deadline: 20.03.22 (submission via email)
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